The BBC’s Jim Muir: ‘State TV… are showing scenes of great devastation’
State TV earlier said suspected al-Qaeda militants had targeted bases of the General Security Directorate and another agency in the Kafr Sousa area.
But opposition activists said the government had staged the attacks to influence an Arab League observer team.
They are part of a scheme aimed at ending the deadly crackdown on dissent.
The UN says more than 5,000 people have been killed and thousands more detained since anti-government protests erupted in March.
The monitors are tasked with overseeing the government’s compliance with an agreement that should see an end to violence by both sides, troops withdrawn from the streets and all detained protesters released.
‘Frightful’
Witnesses told the BBC that Friday’s explosions emanated from the western Qaboun district of Damascus, close to Abbasiyyin Square, and from the Jamarek area of Mezzeh, an eastern district of the capital.
The sound of gunfire was also reported in the central Malki district.
State TV said several soldiers and a large number of civilians were killed in two attacks “carried about by suicide bombers driving vehicles packed with explosives against bases of State Security [General Security Directorate] and another branch of the security services” in the upmarket Kfar Sousa district, south-west of the city centre.
“Preliminary investigations showed al-Qaeda was responsible,” it added.
Video footage was broadcast of heavily damaged buildings, with rescue workers combing through burnt buildings and blood-stained debris, and ambulances taking the injured away.
The state-owned news channel, al-Ikhbariya al-Suriya, said the first bomb targeted the offices of an unnamed security agency in Kafr Sousa.
Afterwards, a 4×4 vehicle filled with explosives approached the building in Kafr Sousa housing the General Security Directorate. When the guards inside went outside to inspect the aftermath of the first blast, the driver of the vehicle detonated the bomb, killing a number of guards and civilians, the channel reported.
“The explosions shook the house, it was frightful,” Nidal Hamidi, a Syrian journalist who lives in Kfar Sousa, told the Associated Press.
Gunfire was heard immediately following the explosion and windows up to 200m (670ft) away were shattered, Mr Hamidi said.
Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad, later told reporters at the scene of one of the blasts that more than 30 people had been killed and 100 wounded. Earlier, state TV said the dead were mostly civilians.
“On the first day after the arrival of the Arab observers, this is the gift we get from the terrorists and al-Qaeda,” Mr Mekdad was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
“But we are going to do all we can to facilitate the Arab League mission.
“We said it from the beginning, this is terrorism. They are killing the army and civilians,” he added.
Mr Mekdad was accompanied by the Arab League’s Assistant Secretary General, Samir Seif al-Yazal, who said the monitors would not be deterred.
“We are here to see the facts on the ground,” he added. “What we are seeing today is regretful, the important thing is for things to calm down.”
A Syrian foreign ministry spokesman later told the Reuters news agency that Lebanon had warned it two days ago that an al-Qaeda cell had entered Syria from its territory.
Reports from Syria are difficult to verify as foreign journalists are unable to move around the country freely.
The powerful General Security Directorate plays an important role in quelling internal dissent, and has been accused of widespread abuses.
The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says Syria’s government insists that the unrest in the country is caused by “armed terrorist gangs”; that point is clearly underlined by the explosions.
Activists, who maintain their movement is peaceful, will undoubtedly regard the timing as deeply suspicious and accuse the government of staging the attacks, our correspondent adds.
